marks on the wall, art or ritual?

Prehistoric Persia

Prehistoric France

Prehistoric India 

Cave art is generally considered to have a symbolic, ritual, or religious function, sometimes all at once. The exact meanings of the images remain unknown, but some experts think they may have been created within the framework of shamanic beliefs and practices. One such practice involved going into a deep cave for a ceremony during which a shaman would enter a trance state and send his or her soul into the otherworld to make contact with the spirits and try to obtain their benevolence.

Some of these animals are extinct—cave lions, mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, cave bears, etc. Later on, we see horses, bison, aurochs, cervids, and ibex. Rarely do we see birds. 

Most cave art consists of paintings made with either red or black pigment. The reds were made with iron oxides (hematite), whereas manganese dioxide and charcoal were used for the blacks.